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ehsanul_hoq
Community Member

Any one Working full-time at Upwork?

Hi, 

I am Ehsanul Hoq. I've been working on Upwork for some time now. I love working as a freelancer in the comfort of my own house. I used to work full-time for a bank but moved to part-time freelancing as Pandemic made things difficult last year. 

Still, I work part-time but interested to know how many of you work full-time at Upwork? How many hours do you work? Anything you would like to share as a full-time freelancer.

 

Thanks in advance.

Ehsan.

25 REPLIES 25
kinector
Community Member

Just a few hours with only the best kinds of clients is how I use Upwork. It is optimal when all of them come from invitations, thus, my sales process is very close to the theoretical optimum (=sit on my fat butt... it's fat because of years of coconut overconsumption).

 

IMHO, a business, be it a one-person freelance show or not, that depends 100% on one sales channel doesn't have a very long business life expectancy.

 

If you play for the long term, you have a solid business contingency plan based on the assumption that any one of your sales channels suddenly dies off tomorrow.

 

That's my two cents from 7 years of full-time freelancing including opportunistic and completely passive Upworking.

Lovely. Thanks for sharing your valuable experience with us. Passive Upworking seems something I am not aware of it though. 

 

Have a great day!!

aziz_92
Community Member

I do it fulltime. 20-40 hrs a week depending on work load.

lysis10
Community Member

I do. I work a lot cuz I'm saving money. July 4th week I'm going with my friend and sis to go look at 5+ acres to buy and then I'm going to build a house on it. Once all that gets done, I'm going to drop my hours to 35-40 and take up gardening or something. I might get a tractor and do Forest Gump stuff and mow my own lawn. idk but I'm pretty excited over all this stuff.

 

I'd never be able to make what I do in a wagie job AND go to the gym at 10am. 

waw! I love the approach and how you stated your plans, Its an inspiration to me.

florydev
Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

I do. I work a lot cuz I'm saving money. July 4th week I'm going with my friend and sis to go look at 5+ acres to buy and then I'm going to build a house on it. Once all that gets done, I'm going to drop my hours to 35-40 and take up gardening or something. I might get a tractor and do Forest Gump stuff and mow my own lawn. idk but I'm pretty excited over all this stuff.

 

I'd never be able to make what I do in a wagie job AND go to the gym at 10am. 


Ha, we are on a similar trajectory.  My wife and I bought about 4 acres back in January (it also borders on about 11 acres of undeveloped land, creek and forest).  In our case it is still going to be in a neighborhood but our nearest neighbor is going to be 300' away instead of 10' (and we have already started planting trees to screen them out).  We are not going to build for at least four years but the plan is in motion for sure.  We hired a landscape architect and plotted out every new tree on the lot.

 

Already bought a lot of stuff, including a truck,  but not a tractor yet (had to hire a local guy to mow).  In the early part of the year we tore out a lot of folliage and limbed up some trees and then piled it all up and in May I sat out there most of the day with some cold drinks, my Kindle, and a match and burned it all down.  Just waiting for it to cool down (both the weather and my work) and am going to fell some trees and  build a nice firepit.

 

Going to take a lot of scratch to make this all happen.

lysis10
Community Member


Mark F wrote:

Jennifer M wrote:

I do. I work a lot cuz I'm saving money. July 4th week I'm going with my friend and sis to go look at 5+ acres to buy and then I'm going to build a house on it. Once all that gets done, I'm going to drop my hours to 35-40 and take up gardening or something. I might get a tractor and do Forest Gump stuff and mow my own lawn. idk but I'm pretty excited over all this stuff.

 

I'd never be able to make what I do in a wagie job AND go to the gym at 10am. 


Ha, we are on a similar trajectory.  My wife and I bought about 4 acres back in January (it also borders on about 11 acres of undeveloped land, creek and forest).  In our case it is still going to be in a neighborhood but our nearest neighbor is going to be 300' away instead of 10' (and we have already started planting trees to screen them out).  We are not going to build for at least four years but the plan is in motion for sure.  We hired a landscape architect and plotted out every new tree on the lot.

 

Already bought a lot of stuff, including a truck,  but not a tractor yet (had to hire a local guy to mow).  In the early part of the year we tore out a lot of folliage and limbed up some trees and then piled it all up and in May I sat out there most of the day with some cold drinks, my Kindle, and a match and burned it all down.  Just waiting for it to cool down (both the weather and my work) and am going to fell some trees and  build a nice firepit.

 

Going to take a lot of scratch to make this all happen.


From what I've learned, buying in a subdivision is better because it keeps the trash from moving in next door, so you guys did the right thing. Unfortunately, where I want to live doesn't have good internet and someone told me some basketball player who lives there paid $200k to have internet run to his house. I feel like there is something more to that story or it's the wrong amount, but I looked up internet and it's only satellite and I can't do that.

 

I've heard it's $20k to run internet to your house. Have you looked at that? This is my big concern with looking for rural land.  I'm willing to do $20k but can't do $200k. If you've looked into it, I'd love to know what you were quoted for it.

florydev
Community Member

In our case we have access to all utilities (except sewer) so, although I don't really know what it will be to get it hooked up, I don't think it is going to be like that.  I do know we can get cable and 100Mb internet right now.  We are few miles out of town, which consists of about 5500 people, but only about 15 minutes from where I am now which is part of the Kansas City metro.  People in the city would call it rural, people in the country would call it city.

 

I will probably be putting in a water meter before long so I can tell you how much that costs but it sounds like you might be going well.  You may have to get TeslaBoy's internet.

 

 

lysis10
Community Member


Mark F wrote:

In our case we have access to all utilities (except sewer) so, although I don't really know what it will be to get it hooked up, I don't think it is going to be like that.  I do know we can get cable and 100Mb internet right now.  We are few miles out of town, which consists of about 5500 people, but only about 15 minutes from where I am now which is part of the Kansas City metro.  People in the city would call it rural, people in the country would call it city.

 

I will probably be putting in a water meter before long so I can tell you how much that costs but it sounds like you might be going well.  You may have to get TeslaBoy's internet.

 

 


Do you mind if I PM you some questions? I unfortunately live in godawful backwoods Georgia and these people have never heard of a female with money. I'm like Pretty Woman right now with cash on hand and nobody taking me seriously and it's pissing me off. My friend's mom has more money than god and she has the same problem. I'm so glad I'm getting the hell out.

 

I won't ask anything personal cuz dox but I just need to know where to get started, because I have money but the one real estate guy that everyone around here seems to blindly trust says cash only for land but it's better to package it with a mortgage. This seems odd to me. I want to custom build and even found custom house plans. My plan was to pay cash for land and then save a good chunk of change for the mortgage.


Jennifer M wrote:

My plan was to pay cash for land and then save a good chunk of change for the mortgage.

It depends on how much money you have, you should get a financial consultant. You can put the money in an investment that covers the mortgage payment, or close. After 30 years you own the land + the cash invested + whatever you saved. No investment ... you own the land + whatever you saved.

 

Probably nobody is taking you seriously because your credit score sucks.


Regarding the internet, I remember reading something about grants offered to rural areas for expanding high-speed internet service ... search state internet grants/funding.

lol

peggyjparks
Community Member

Hello Ehsan!

Yes, I freelance full-time for Upwork clients, and I work from 25 to 40 hours per week. I don’t apply for very many jobs these days because I’m so busy. Good problem to have!

I’ve said it before so I might as well say it again … I absolutely love being connected with the Upwork platform. I have fabulous clients, with more than 70 percent of them long-term clients; I am paid quickly and like clockwork every week; I was able to build my business by taking advantage of the wealth of information Upwork provides; my time is tracked effortlessly with the Time Tracker; my invoicing is done for me; and with only a few clicks I can immediately find out how much I’ve billed in a given time period.

Bottom line: Finding Upwork was the best thing that could possibly have happened for my career.

That’s probably way more than you were asking for, so I’ll stop there. 😆

Hi Peggy P, 

 

Thanks for sharing your journey. Getting inspired by you guys! I'm also loving the platform. Best wishes with your freelancing journey!!

 

Ehsan.

Thanks! And best wishes to you too. 😃
hglewis
Community Member

Hello Ehsanul Hoq,

 

It's great to meet you.

 

To answer your question.

 

I own and operate a commercial writing business for the past 28+ years. UW is just one of my sources to acquire clients.

 

I'm very selective about whom I send a proposal to and whom I think is the best fit for my company.

 

Thanks for asking!

 

 

Hi Woodrow Q,

 

You seem experienced in the field. Thank you for answering. Best wishes!

 

Ehsan.

gilbert-phyllis
Community Member

Freelancing is my only source of income. Upwork is not my only source of business. I work as many hours as I can tolerate, which varies wildly from week to week and month to month.

 

Freelance is my major source of income

Good to know that Oladoyin I. Best wishes!!!

Thank you for sharing Phyllis G. And best wishes for your journey!!!!

I'm a full-time freelancer as well and have become Upwork-exclusive. I truly love this platform and appreciate the security of knowing my time and work will be compensated. I've developed a system for sending proposals efficiently and hope to build a reliable client base. I sing Upwork's praises to every freelancer I know!

Hi Tina A,

 

Good to know that you are loving Upwork. I am also promoting Upwork to my friends and family. I heard stories of people who survived the pandemic thanks to Upwork. 

 

Thanks and wishing you Luck!

 

Ehsan.

 Bonjour,

 

Mermoz from Abidjan in West Africa

I have been on upwork since 27th Feb this year

if it's a not secret can you share with us  your tips/system for sending proposals efficiently

 

Hope to hear from you

I'd be happy to!

I wrote several short introductory scripts, each of which highlight different areas of experience, depending on the skills the particular job requires. I'm a writer and copyeditor, so I often apply for jobs that require similar but different talents. Once I paste in the script, I customize it a bit, adding any questions I have or remarking on specifics about that offer. (For instance, one contract required people who have a passion for cooking. As a mother of five, I cook a lot and happen to know a ton about various kitchen appliances and cooking techniques. Those aren't skills I would necessarily include on my resume, but it would certainly benefit me to mention it in the cover letter.)

Overall, each proposal takes between five and ten minutes to send, allowing me to submit five to ten per day. My goal is to build a steady client base on Upwork, eventually getting to the point where I no longer have to send proposals at all. Yesterday, I landed my second standing contract, so I'm making good progress!

f31685a2
Community Member

Great question here Ehsan! I think the trick is to keep yourself available across many networks, increase your odds by doing so, and also be a man of your word, stick to what you know, and you can freelance full-time.

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